Media

While I was gone at CTIA, there's been a bunch of things that have happened that I didn't get time to properly write about. So today, we'll have a bit of an iPhone news smörgåsbord. There's been a fair amount of news, a fair amount of not-news, and some of the things that I've been reading are just plain wrong.

Apple Dealing with Film-Makers Directly for iTunesApple has sidestepped some of the major studios for some films, opting instead to
deal directly with film-makers. This could be a sign of things to come -- it would be great to not have to report every major film-studio or TV channel contract tiff.

A website called Booksoniphone.com offers a full library of copyright free books available for reading right on your iPhone, from within Safari. Once you visit the site you'll need to create a free account profile, complete with username and password. After logging in you'll be able to browse a fairly substantial library of works by drilling down into categories and authors to find anything that suits your fancy.

The experience isn't thrilling, but does make for a wonderful way to pass the time when you find yourself stuck in dull situations, like office meetings, child berthings, that sort of thing.

Thomas Robinson has started a really cool project that enables XBOX 360 owners to use their iPhone as an XBOX Media Center Remote, controlled via WiFi. A simple menu-driven interface allows you to play music, video, DVDs, photo slideshows, and more. I like!

The project is fully open source and can be downloaded free from Thomas's website.

An online media service called Texterity delivers mobile editions to popular print magazines right to your iPhone, via Safari. In a nutshell, what Texterity does is simply digitize each print magazine page, turning it into an image file that can then be displayed and viewed within Safari much like a photo. Just point your browser (from the iPhone) to http://iphone.texterity.com/magazines/. Tap on any magazine that you like and a fully illustrated thumbnail library appears, representing pages from the selected magazine. Using the "Pinch" gesture, allows you to zoom and drag any portion of the document, making it readable. Believe it or not this is a workable solution. I've tried it myself.

Robert Scoble grabs his camera and heads to the Web 2.0 Summit Party to interview high profile attendees. He says that everyone there seemed to have an iPhone, except for himself. Come on, Robert - you know you want to join the cult. Drink from the fountain of Kool-Aid, it will make you sleepy.

My favorite quote comes from his interrogation of Robert Sears, Chief Architect of Multimedia Experiences at Nokia, about the Finnish company's answer to the iPhone...

Dieter Bohn (yeah, his name is so French) of WM Experts does a nice walk through comparison between the HTC Touch and iPhone, stacking up each device's feature set and functionality. I agree with Dieter's overall assessment and conclusions, except for his assertion the Touch's onscreen keyboard comes out ahead of iPhone through third party software.
Windows Mobile offers greater flexibility and productivity, but overall it's an inferior platform compared to OSX. That said I still prefer WinMob to Blackberry or Symbian.

Hey iPhone users, eMusic has your number! Well not exactly. They won't be calling you on your phone, but they are however giving away 35 free (yes, that's free as in beer) tracks for iPhone users who sign up for a trial membership of eMusic's popular music service. This offer is supposedly "no strings attached' meaning you can sign up, download your free tracks, then cancel and still keep my your music. Not that I endorse such behavior. Looks around nervously

Sign up now and they'll also throw in a free hat! No, sorry no hat either. I am such a tease today.